Press Releases

Rep. Matt Cartwright released the following statement today after the announcement made by the Tobyhanna Army Depot that they have reduced civilian defense workers furloughs from 11 days to 6:

“The Tobyhanna Army Depot has informed its 3,500 civilian employees that the 11-day furlough instituted last month have been reduced to six.  The decision means that today is the sixth and final furlough day for civilian defense workers.

“A result of sequestration, a mechanism of automatic budget cuts that went into effect earlier this year, furloughs were put in place.  To adhere to budget requirements, the Department of Defense instituted an 11-day furlough for about 650,000 department civilian employees.

“While it is disappointing that the Pentagon has had to impose furlough days for civilian defense workers, the Pentagon worked vigorously to find cost-saving efforts to reduce the proposed furloughs. 

“I welcome this announcement by Tobyhanna.  The uncertainty that has unnecessarily been placed on the workforce in the form of lost workdays, lost pay and falling further behind in serving our troops in the field has finally been halted. 

“The hard working men and women at Tobyhanna deserve our every effort in providing them with a stable professional environment to continue their work on behalf of the warfighter.  I still urge my colleagues to reach a compromise to permanently replace the ten-year sequester with a balanced, bipartisan alternative.”